Britomart project
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The Britomart project, 1999-2001
Change of council | Public
consultation | Design competition | Project
priorities | Public support | Station resource consent |
Utility preparation | A
dangerous area | Demolition | Funding Britomart
Change
of council
Auckland City reluctantly committed $125 million to the transport centre, but
developer Jihong Lu missed contractual deadlines and another project was
cancelled.
A new council was elected in October 1998 who resolved to rethink the 1995
project. The new mayor Christine Fletcher promised to 'open the books' on
Britomart. In 1999 there was a recommendation to proceed after public
consultation.
Public
consultation
In 1999 Auckland City adopted a basic principle, which was that the future of
the site be determined with the help of its owners - the Auckland public.
Several consultation exercises were held, seeking people's views on features
that they would like to see in the waterfront area. The ideas expressed in the
surveys ranged from safe, clean and comfortable public spaces to easy access to
the waterfront for recreation. These suggestions were incorporated in earlier
projects, most notably the Viaduct Harbour redevelopment.
Feedback forms allowed the public to agree or disagree with what Auckland
City wanted to achieve on the Britomart site and provide comments on a range of
issues.
The surveys showed strong support for starting a rail service to Queen St as
soon as possible, buses operating on surface and not underground, and the
preservation of the heritage buildings.
The consultation process was used to create a set of principles that guided
the Britomart development:
- a transport interchange for Auckland including bus, ferry and rail
services
- a gateway to the CBD and the waterfront
- people coming and going 24 hours a day
- a safe, welcoming place for people
- exciting and vibrant public spaces
- enhancement of the downtown waterfront to open up the city to the sea
- extending the Viaduct Harbour success story.
The project changed its name from Britomart to the Waitemata Waterfront
development.
Design
competition
Using these principles, Auckland City embarked on a two stage design
competition to make the best use of the Britomart site - with the former CPO
playing a major part in the development.
Stage one ran from 5 April 2000 to 26 May 2000.
Stage one was an open competition with a wide brief to draw out as many ideas
and as much innovation as possible. Of the 153 competition entries received, the judging panel gave a
total of 30 awards. The judging panel selected seven major prize winners, with
each winning entry receiving a $10,000 prize.
The seven major winners were:
- Creative Spaces/Cox Richardson Architects
- Denton Corker Marshall Architects with Stephen Brown Landscape Architects
- Crosson Clarke Architects, Andrew Scott Cotton Architects in association
with Designgroup Consortium Ltd, Ted Smythe, Landscape Architects, Rod
Barnett, Duscho Bogonovich and Dianne Brand
- Aaron Sills and Wayne Lees
- Leuschke Group Architects and LA4
- Architects Patterson with Leo Jew, John Betts and Chris Van Tonder
- Mario Madayag with Jasmax, OMA/AMO Rem Koolhaas, Peter Walker and
Partners.
Ideas produced in this stage were then
debated and incorporated into stage two. Stage two was a developed design phase to produce
achievable solutions for the Britomart area. The seven design finalists competed
in this stage with a detailed brief including how to incorporate light rail into
the design. Stage two ran from 31 July 2000 to 6 October 2000.
The winner was announced in early November 2000 as Mario Madayag in partnership
with Jasmax Architects. Jasmax Architects worked on the Auckland Town Hall refurbishment and designed
Wellington's Te Papa Museum. Mario Madayag is a Californian architect, now
living in New Zealand, who worked on the $2.5billion Santa Monica Getty Centre.
Public interest into the design made headline news not only in Auckland but
also around New Zealand, with headlines in a number of regional newspapers. A
very happy Mario Madayag thanked Auckland for their vote of confidence in his
Britomart design.
The judging panel consisted of Professor John Hunt (The University of
Auckland City), Mayor Chris Fletcher, deputy Mayor Dr Bruce Hucker, Councillor
Doug Astley, Ngarimu Blair of Ngati Whatua, Ian Athfield and Clinton Bird, from
the New Zealand Institute of Architects, Graeme Horsley, from the Property
Council and Paul Asquith, from the Bus and Coach Association.
The attributes of the winning design as described by the judging panel:
- Presents a clear and powerful vision for the future development of the
Britomart precinct that achieves a fine balance as a robust and vital part
of the city and as a successful transport interchange.
- Demonstrates in some detail how that vision might be translated into
explicit design proposals, while offering significant flexibility to cope
with future changes to project requirements. (In the words of one assessor,
it offers a "library of robust ideas".)
- Advocates a central role for the former CPO as a hub for the transport
interchange and as a memorable place of arrival into the city (a
"vestibule" for the city).
- Establishes protected pedestrian routes that link the various transport
modes at ground level and below ground. Below ground linkages extend out
from the CPO to Queen St, the ferry terminals and the Downtown Centre,
and incorporates natural lighting features.
- Advocates the grouping of bus stops in several locations, thereby avoiding
the concentration of buses in a single location on the one hand, and the
dispersal of buses on the other.
- Advances proposals that transform Queen Elizabeth Square into a focus of
transport related activity while strengthening links between Queen St
and Queens Wharf, and evoking the historical significance of these linkages.
- Advances proposals for linking the precinct with both the waterfront and
the city behind, using distinctive streetscapes to achieve this objective.
- Responds to the distinctive heritage character of the precinct by creating
open spaces from which the more significant of the heritage buildings may be
fully appreciated. Proposes a combination of open spaces, streetscapes and
lanes, which offer the potential for a vital and friendly pedestrian
environment.
- Proposes a scale of development that is compatible with the heritage
buildings and precincts, and builds upon their qualities.
- Proposes new building development that would invite a diversity of uses
and contribute to intensive activity within the precinct.
- Suggests an approach to incorporating Maori cultural concepts into the
development in a manner that would enable these ideas to be developed in a
variety of ways.
- Offers a framework for development that is based upon strong urban ideas
yet which would permit other design professionals and artists to make
distinctive contributions.
A number of groups were established to provide ongoing consultation
throughout the re-concepting process. This included many stakeholders such as
the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and Heart of the City. They examined the
above ground master plan, taking into consideration the principles set out
through public consultation. The above ground master plan focused on a range of
issues such as, how the retained heritage buildings would coincide with new
development, the mixed-use activities in the precinct, carparks and public
spaces.
Emphasis was placed on protecting, restoring and celebrating the remaining
historic buildings on the Britomart site. Underlying this built heritage are
numerous Maori heritage sites whose names reflect the abundant resource of the
Auckland Isthmus and the battles waged for their control. Auckland City formed a relationship with Ngati Whatua that will see these waahi
tapu (sacred sites) further protected, restored and celebrated, as part of the
identity of Tangata Whenua. The articulation of this heritage through the
Britomart design process will ensure that all Aucklanders can identify with it.
Project
priorities
Prior to the design competition, a basic scheme with minimal architectural
enhancements was developed with a capital budget of $175 million. This capital cost was
increased to $189 million to include the CPO floor and dome modifications, full access to
Quay Park and additional tracks in the railway station.
The design competition added a number of architectural features to the
project and the winners of the competition were appointed as the Britomart
architects. The capital estimate was increased to $262 million under the revised plans.
The increase in costs was controversial, with some people unhappy with the extra
features and associated costs.
The Britomart plans were reviewed at a value management workshop. Outcomes
of the workshop were risk assessed and a priority list was developed for
discretionary expenditure and a list of design developments. Risks identified
were evaluated and prioritised.
Auckland City's long term financial strategy made provision for $133 million for the
Waitemata Waterfront development project. Funding applications were submitted to
Infrastructure Auckland and Transfund for a total funding package of $116.5
million.
There was still a $13 million shortfall to meet the current total
estimate of $262 million. This shortfall was met by deleting some items to reduce the
cost. They included removing travelators, 8 escalators and dynamic lighting from
the concourse, and reducing the width of the concourse to 5m.
Public
support
On the 28 June 2001 Auckland City issued a news release stating the findings
of an independent survey of 750 residents throughout the region. The findings
confirmed that 71 per cent considered traffic congestion and transportation to
be the most important issues facing the city. The respondents were aware of the
importance of the project as a means of solving traffic problems. Nearly 80 per
cent considered the creation of a downtown hub for passenger transport to be
important or extremely important, and nearly 70 per cent supported getting on
with the job.
Station
resource consent
On 22 July 2000, Auckland City publicly notified an application to Auckland
Regional Council for resource consent to allow construction of the underground railway
station. The application was submitted early to allow ample time for the consent
process. This ran parallel to the design competition for the Waitemata
Waterfront Development. The resource consent application was for the de-watering
and landuse sediment control during construction.
The particular issues that were identified included:
- traffic effects
- noise and vibration effects
- groundwater and structural effects
- sediment control
- dust effect
- site security
- interruption to services.
There were a total of
19 submissions received in response to the application. Twelve submissions
opposed or did not indicate whether they supported or opposed the application,
four conditionally supported the application, and three submissions supported
the application.
A hearing was held to consider the resource consent application, and the
application was approved on 1 December 2000. The resource consent required
Auckland City to have ongoing consultation with
neighbours.
Utility
preparation
Utilities had to be relocated to allow for construction during the Britomart
Project.
Completion of a $4 million stormwater project was a major step in
preparation for the future development of the waterfront area, including the
transport interchange. New stormwater drains, with some sections up to 4.5m in
width, were installed on a route that runs 385m along Quay St,
Britomart Pl and Customs St East, connecting to the outlet beneath Captain
Cook Wharf. The stormwater project was completed on time and under budget.
Other services on the Britomart site such as gas services, the 11kV cable and
telecommunications had to be relocated as they conflicted with the Britomart
excavation.
A
dangerous area
The Britomart area was regarded as an unruly, ugly and unsafe area. On 26 January 2001 a 23 year old man was brutally beaten with a
piece of timber near the corner of Gore St and Quay St, he later died. Only a
few days earlier a woman was gang-raped in Tyler St, behind the old CPO.
Demolition
Three buildings were demolished on the Britomart site to prepare for
construction of the new railway station.
In February 2001 the reinforced CPO Annexe attached to the back of the old
CPO was demolished. An existing resource consent for the demolition was due to
expire on 22 March 2001. In order to utilise the consent, the demolition was
approved on 8 February 2001, with works completed by May 2001. The
contract was awarded to Burrell demolition for $500,000 and most of the
materials, including the concrete and steel reinforcing were recycled.
Fortunately when the art deco style CPO Annexe was constructed in 1937, a gap was
created between the CPO which preserved the eastern fa�ade. During demolition
three stray letters were found in the gap between the buildings. Once the CPO Annexe demolition works were complete the site was used as a
temporary carpark.
The contract to demolish the Britomart bus terminal and car park was
awarded to Ward Demolition for $404,000 on 30 March 2001. The concrete,
steel, kauri and oregon timber from the site were recycled. The concrete was
broken down and reused for driveways, footpaths, carparks and under-floor slabs.
The car park demolition work was completed in October 2001 and the site
was prepared for the construction of the underground station.
The Britomart
carpark was in poor structural condition and would have required major works if
it had not been demolished. Maintenance in the year leading up to its demolition
cost $33,000 and it was estimated to need a further $20,000 per month to keep it
in a safe condition.
Buses that carried nearly 10,000 peak period passengers from the Britomart
bus terminal were moved from the old Britomart bus terminal site to various
inner-city streets on the 17 June 2001. The relocation of the buses involved establishing new bus
stops, providing the necessary infrastructure (shelters,
seats, rubbish bins, information signs), traffic engineering and a comprehensive
communications program.
Funding
Britomart
Auckland City approved the detailed design and budget for the Waitemata Waterfront
development. At a special council meeting a maximum capital expenditure of
$249.3 million was agreed for the project. Auckland City's contribution was set at
$133 million, as agreed to before the design competition.
The Transfund board decided to contribute a $10 million capital grant and $10
million for patronage. Government policy constrained Transfund to contribute
both capital and operational costs, so it was agreed that $10 million would be
deducted from what it would pay for improved patronage for the regional
passenger transport network.
Land Information New Zealand, a government department responsible for
the statutory decisions for the acquisition and disposal of Crown property
contributed $1.8 million towards the rail infrastructure.
Auckland Regional Council contributed $1.9 million towards high quality
amenities on street
level.
Infrastructure Auckland (IA) resolved to grant $45 million towards the
Britomart project with a number of terms and conditions. This figure was less
than the $90 million Auckland City had sought from IA. IA based its figures
for the station on the projected passengers per hour during peak times. IA
chairman John Robertson explained the Britomart money came from three
components, rail tracks $11.48 million, rail signage $4.44 million, and station
$29.05 million.
After years of debate the council voted unanimously to go ahead with the project.
The funding short fall meant that the design adopted by council was scaled back
with the elimination of the full underground walkway and less streetscape
improvements.
The funders of the $204 million Britomart project:
Auckland City |
$135.7 million |
Infrastructure Auckland |
$45 million |
Transfund New Zealand |
$20 million |
Auckland Regional Council |
$1.9 million |
Land Information New Zealand |
$1.8 million |
Total |
$204.4 million |
|